Thursday, March 18, 2010

WARNING: FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, THERE MAY BE SCARY THINGS WRITTEN HERE.

Of all the various scary things that you might find in a horror movie, and all the various frightening things that you might see on "Cops", and all the scary things that you see in a 7-11 at one o'cock in the morning, do you know what scares me the most?

Zombies.

No, I'm not kidding.

I've often wondered why zombies disturb me more than anything else. They're slow. They're weak. They're stupid. Most movie monsters are superior to zombies in all of these respects. Most criminals are scarier than zombies in the sense that they actually exist. So why is it that, even when I see a picture of a zombie, I'm messed up for three days?

I think I have a reason for it.

Zombies are motivated and persistent. They want ony one thing: to get you. And until they do, they will never stop trying. You can't bribe them. You can't threaten them. You can't reason with them. They don't need to eat. They never sleep. They never stop. Ever. If you lock our door against a zombie, he may not be able to pick the lock, but you can bet that he will still be banging on your door a month from now. If you shoot them anywhere except the head, they ignore it and keep coming. If they somehow lose their legs, they will drag themselves toward you with their hands. Nothing ever deters them from their goal.

This thought came fluttering by today as I was reflecting on Bible study. The few people who have heard that I was trying to memorize the Bible treated it like it was going to be really hard. But I have discovered that it isn't. The day-to day work of it is relatively easy. The hard thing is to make up your mind to actually do it every day. If you have persistence, then little by little, the work gets done. So, as much as they frighten me, I suppose that the living dead have something to teach me about persistence. And perhaps, if I learn that lesson, the task of memorizing the Bible will go a little more smoothy than it has in recent weeks.

When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah ived 782 years, and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah, and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands, caused by the ground the Lord has cursed."